Australia will have to find a way to keep Indian pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah quiet if they are to win the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, reckoned captain Pat Cummins on Tuesday as they draw comfort from success in last two ICC finals against their fierce rivals. The world’s top two Test teams will clash in a five-match affair starting on November 22 in Perth and India will enter the contest having held the trophy for nearly a decade, which includes winning two consecutive series Down Under.
“I’m a big fan of Bumrah. I think he’s a fantastic bowler. Hopefully, if we can keep him quiet, that is going to go a long way to winning the series,” Cummins said on the Star Sports Press Room.
“Alongside him, he has got some other guys who haven’t played a lot over here in Australia (that) we haven’t seen a lot of. We’ll see how it goes,” he added.
Cummins said Australia will lean on happy memories of winning the last two ICC finals — World Test Championship and ODI World Cup — against Rohit Sharma’s India.
“The last two series were a long time ago. We have got over it,” he said.
“I’ve never played alongside him (Rohit Sharma), so I don’t know him super well. But it has looked like they (Indian team) are pretty organised, pretty well-planned.
“Fortunately, over the last few years, we’ve had some success in the World Test Championship final and (in) a different format for the ODI World Cup. We’ll be trying to lean on those memories. As I’m sure they’re trying to remember some of the previous series over here as well,” he said.
Pujara’s absence will give a ‘different feel’
Cummins said playing against Cheteshwar Pujara, whose stoic resistance with the bat laid the foundation of India’s away wins in 2018-19 and 2020-21, was ‘real Test cricket’.
“It was always great playing (against) Pujara. He was one of those guys who never really felt like he was getting away from you. But then he would (just) bat, bat, bat and bat,” he said.
“I really enjoyed the contest against him. Some days he won, other days I won. It’s going to have a bit of a different feel without him. Pujara is a great player.”
“(I) had lots of battles against him over the years. I quite enjoyed them, to be honest. It was real Test cricket. He might score runs, but you always feel like you’re in for a chance.” Cummins said playing against India’s former No 3 batter was a battle of outlasting each other.
“It comes down to almost who wants to outlast each other, which I quite like that aspect of Test cricket. It’s going to be a shame that he is not there, but I’m sure they’ll pick someone else who’s in a similar kind of style,” he said.
Cummins said the India-Australia rivalry will now be “mirroring” the Ashes given that there will be five Tests hereon.
“I do think it is,” said Cummins when asked if India-Australia rivalry matched that of the Ashes.
“Particularly, after the Indian team won the last couple of series at (our) home. We’ve had more success against England over the past decade. I think it’s right up there,” he said.
“You know when you play against India, you’ve got a few Indian fans that are watching. It’s a slightly different rivalry to England-Australia rivalry. But again, now having a five-Test match series, it does mirror the Ashes series very closely,” he said.
Cummins said India’s reputation has been consolidated by winning away from home.
“Winning (in) Test cricket away from home is as tough as it gets in our sport and India have done that around the world. They are really, really good at home but also, one of the better teams to travel as well — that’s their reputation,” he said.
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